I used to live in Dinas Powys ten years ago. I moved here in 1998 and stayed until 2000, i miss the village and its people and will move back one day. i used to pop back to the village from time to time over the years, to visit old friends. However the majority of them have since also moved on and it has been a number of years since i was back. But over the weekend i had the chance to stop by as I was heading over to west Wales on a trip so took a detour through the village. I was quite amazed at the amount of traffic flowing (ok crawling) along Cardiff road, there are a lot more cars on the road then there were 10 years ago. I also noticed that they've put speed humps around the common to slow the cars down. I didn't get a chance to stay for long due to timescales, but it was nice to stop in briefly and see the place. The memories came flooding back of a very different life and time. It was a very uncomplicated life, living with my then girlfriend in a fantastic house with very little if anything to worry about. We had a very close core group of friends who were all vibrant, young and carefree who knew how to enjoy ourselves. The long hot summer of 1999 where we spend many days down at Southerdown beach normally followed by evenings drinking in the village square at The Three Horseshoes, Cross keys, and the Star in its former guise before the refurbishment. Yeah life there was fun, lots of good times and partying.
I apologize now to any inhabitants of Cwm Drive and the surrounding wood, as some nights (a bunch of 20-25 year olds acting like 14 year olds) after many beers in the village, usually a take away curry from The Balti Tandoori, we would embark on a midnight game of ‘mob.’ Some of us falling out of trees, half drowning in the river, and running into tree trunks in the woods. It’s kind of hard to see in the dark, especially if it was a clear night with no moon. It was fantastic fun and a marvelous way of sobering up after a fair few to many. I look back on my life here with a total utopian view, it all does seem so perfect, and associate ‘the village’ as the main reason why our lives were so good. But I wonder now what would happen if I actually ever did move back? With my business career going in the right direction it doesn’t seem too far away that the opportunity to move back becomes a reality. The question in my mind though is what would it be like if I did move back? The reason why I might want to move back is hoping that it will be the same as it was some 10 years ago when I lived in the village. The answer to this of course is that it will NOT be anything like life was 10 years ago. My friends have moved away, the ones that are still here have new very different lives (like me) and of course there are things I have now that I would not want to give up.
You never appreciate something until it’s gone, and when I moved away from the area it was then that I appreciated my time here. Would I like to come back? I think so, I’ve got a new life here, with new friends and challenges, but are some memories better left ‘positive?’ What ever I do I want to thank the people of Dinas Powys for being so friendly and welcoming, perhaps I will see some of you in the not too distant future. And again sorry for scaring or keeping anyone awake with our late night jaunts into the woods around this great place.